WalletHub ranks Louisiana as worst state for women

Tuesday

Mar 13, 2018 at 10:17 AM

She said access to health care and salary earnings were two key metrics that hurt the state's ranking.

Halen Doughty

With March being Women's History Month, the personal finance website WalletHub identified the most women-friendly states by comparing them across 23 key metrics. The data set ranging from median earnings for female workers to women's preventative health care landed Louisiana in last, as the worst state in the country for women.

WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzales said the Bayou State ranked poorly in a number of areas in the study. She said access to health care and salary earnings were two key metrics that hurt the state's ranking.

"Louisiana has the third highest percentage of women living in poverty at almost 22 percent, and nearly 20 percent of women were not able to visit a doctor in the past year because of costs," said Gonzales. "Both of those areas were where Louisiana performed poorly."

That data landed Louisiana at number 43 for the female uninsured rate and 47 for women's life expectancy at birth. The state ranked 32nd for the quality of women's hospitals and 19th for women's preventative health care. The state did not do any better in employment metrics.

"Louisiana ranked 36th for the median earning key metric at $26,872 per year and 46th for the female unemployment rate at 5.8 percent," said Gonzales.

Louisiana came in at number 38 for the share of women-owned businesses. In the education category, Louisiana ranked 46th for women's high school graduation rates. But Gonzales said it wasn't all bad news for the state on this report.

"Louisiana ranked above average, 13th, for the Prevalence of Stalking Victimization Among Women metric with 14.4 percent of women reporting to be victims," said Gonzales. "That's a relatively low number compared to many other states."

Gonzales added there are policy changes that can be made in Louisiana to improve the state's ranking on this report.

"Louisiana should start focusing on improving the economic and social well-being of its women by implementing and promoting programs that put women in the center," said Gonzales. "Programs that encourage women to run for office or motivate companies to promote women in the workplace are good places to start."

Check out the full report from WalletHub here.

Follow Halen on Twitter: @LikeVanHalen

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